Midwoof Diaries: Story Time! Mr. SMP takes bottle feeding on for the very first time…

Story Time

As you may have heard, tiny puppy #4 in Raven's litter was a preemie and wasn't born with the sucking instinct. She was born at 6.8 oz and got all the way down to 5.1 oz a few days later. We started working with her with formula by using a syringe and the miracle nipple. We also transferred her over to Phoebe's care because she is so good with the tiny pups.

We hoped she'd start gaining well in a few days, but every time we'd try to stop the formula feeds, she would lose weight again. This happened right after I left to take Emma to college. As you can imagine, I was helpless. So Mr. SMP stepped in.

Whenever I'm out of town he has a good handle on our dogs and puppies anyway, but he's never had to bottle feed a puppy, though he has seen me do so on many occasions. (I may be a bit of a control freak on this )

So, Mr. SMP made formula and kept it ready in the fridge, keeping a weight log. He noticed she'd gain at certain times and lose at others, so whenever she lost he would feed her formula. We had the vet come to make sure the puppy had nothing physically wrong with her (she doesn't) and they told him to keep going with the formula feeds.

I left on September 3rd and she was 199 grams. During this time, Mr. SMP decided that he was tired of calling his little patient "the puppy", so he went rogue and named her "Molly" after the "Unsinkable Molly Brown". After all of his time and dedication, I decided that he had naming rights on this one and it fits her so well! So that is why Molly is not a "Goonie". Our little survivor is up to 467 grams today, which is over a pound! And now that I know Mr. SMP has a gift for feeding struggling puppies, you can be sure that I will be calling on his expertise again!